One of India's most wanted Islamists has been arrested in a security forces operation on the border with Nepal.

Yasin Bhatkal is accused of involvement in a string of recent attacks including a 2010 blast at a bakery patronised by international tourists in the city of Pune that killed nine and injured 60.

Yasin Bhatkal in a picture released by Indian police officials last year

The 30-year-old is said to be one of the founders of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) militant organisation. "Yasin Bhatkal has been traced and detained ... His interrogation is going on," Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in Delhi on Thursday morning.

India has been hit by a series of high-profile attacks involving both local and overseas-based militants. The most spectacular recent strike was launched by Pakistan-based extremists against hotels and other targets in Mumbai, the country's commercial capital, in 2008. However, there have been dozens of smaller-scale operations which do not attract international attention.

Indian counter-terrorist officials said the detention of Bhatkal was their biggest success for several years. Experts say Bhatkal, who has been pursued for a decade, would rank among the top five wanted Indian Islamists.

"He is known to have personally done a number of attacks and has been linked to several others," said Saikat Datta, a respected Delhi-based journalist who has written extensively on extremist violence in India.

Top of India's wanted list is Dawood Ibrahim, the gang lord blamed for massive bombings in Mumbai in 1993 and widely reported to be living now in Pakistan. Next are Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, relatives of the arrested Yasin, who are seen as the leaders of the IM network, Datta said.

Local authorities are believed to have tracked Yasin Bhatkal, who fled India in 2008 following a narrow escape from detention in the western city of Kolkata, through Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Gulf before eventually arresting him on the porous border between India and Nepal on Wednesday evening.

Bhatkal's real name is Muhammad Ahmad Zarar Siddibapa. He and his relatives all come from the town of Bhatkal in the southern Karnataka state, which is known for sectarian tensions between Muslims and Hindus. They are accused of founding the IM, dedicated to a strategy of violence, six years ago.

Many younger Muslim men from Bhatkal and surrounding areas have spent time working in Gulf countries where they have been exposed to conservative strands of Islamic practice and highly politicised militant ideologies.

Indian security authorities have struggled to contain intermittent waves of militancy involving a tiny minority among India's 160 million Muslims.

Bhatkal is also suspected of involvement in a 2011 attack in Mumbai in which 26 died.